Recent content by DavidBD

Yes, it makes a big difference when and how you add hops. The interplay of hops and yeast is complicated. Hop oils stick to yeast membranes. Hops added early to cold wort can introduce bacteria before the yeast has dropped the pH to a level that hinders bacteria. Also, early oxidation of beta...

I'm working on my first lager using the X3 and I just kegged it this afternoon. I have the pressure fermenting kit, with spunding valve. I'm going to lager in the keg in a small refrigerator, which will be around 35F. The Icemaster 2 is not really getting my fermenter ice cold in my hot garage...

Boiling supposedly explodes starch granules and makes more starches available. Speaking of podcasts, there is a good one from May 27, 2010 on Basic Brewing Radio named Kai's Take on Decoction. In that episode, I think Kai said that a final decoction to reach mashout is properly done with the...

I usually boil for 80 or 90 minutes.Bamforth, Palmer and Zainasheff all say to boil more than 60 to first create DMS from its SMM precursors and then to drive it off. Scott Janish talks about the 37 minute half life of SMM. You get rid of 75% or so at 90 minutes and almost all at 120. Yes...

Hi @Zadkiel. Personally, I would go for the finer crush for better extraction rates, as long as the husks are not shredded, which would then lead to more tannins in the final beer. I suppose you won't know if the husks are mostly intact until you see it. Your recipe has rather a lot of water for...

Thunderstruck live at River Plate

Last time, I installed it after flocculation began in an attempt to limit clogs, with the idea that the last bit of fermentation would push out oxygen. The filter screen didn't clog, but it was still visibly covered in yeasty matter. Next time, I plan to affix a small steel washer to the dip...

I suppose most fill methods leave a large gap on these longer, larger 1L bottles. I'm not certain that topping off the bottles is a great idea, but doing so causes a bit of foam, which hopefully pushes out any air. Capping on foam might be better than simply pulling out the fill tube and having...

Well, the WW BrewBottler worked a treat, but it left quite a lot of headspace on my 1 liter bottles. After initially filling each bottle, I lowered it to the end of the fill tube and topped it off, which all seemed a bit kludgy. There's probably a slicker way to ensure the bottles are full. As...

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I suppose my procedure for the first trub dump will be to relieve pressure and wait a few hours for the trub to settle again. Then I can quickly release any last pressure, remove the collection jar, empty and replace it, purging air from it with CO2 (using a carb stone attached to the jar), and...

The X3 conical has a collection jar at the bottom. When it comes time to remove trub or harvest yeast, I believe one must first bleed off all pressure before closing the valve and removing the collection jar. However, the act of bleeding off pressure causes bubbles to gas out from the collection...

This inexpensive weighted design should stay submerged (link): weighted dip tube screen It seems like they want you to attach the float bobber at the end closest to the tube connection. If needed, you could make the lead for the bobber a little longer so the pickup rides lower or possibly...

The batch I brewed last Friday had a disappointing OG of 1040, when it should have been 1050. A significant part of the grain bill included some lovely T. Fawcett malts (Otter and Pearl), which came pre-milled from Morebeer. The malts are nice, fresh, with great friability and amazing smell, but...

I believe they said to tighten the clamps by hand, but that seemed insufficient on the big 8" cover, perhaps because the gasket is new. I used a 1/2" diameter wooden dowel to tighten the 8" clamp just until it looked even all around. A quick spray of Star San solution helps when trying to seat...